BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to curb road accident fatalities caused by unruly parking of heavy vehicles on the roads and monetise the vacant unused land parcels, the state government has decided to set up truck terminals along the national and state highways. The terminals will have warehouses and cold storage facilities, a petrol bunk, a restaurant, a weighing bridge, a loading and unloading area, a dormitory, toilets and bathrooms, ATMs, a health clinic and other facilities.
The Commerce and Transport department has identified locations in Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Sundargarh and Nabarangpur for developing truck terminals on a priority basis. As decided, the sites will be developed as integrated truck terminals with commercial components in the form of office/commercial buildings, hotels and hospitality centres, malls and multiplexes and other such establishments on a public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Additional transport commissioner (road safety) Lalmohan Sethi said the terminals will be built on PPP mode to reduce accidents and fatalities due to on-road parking, make the best and most effective use of resources and provide the best of its class facilities for parking heavy vehicles. The identified vacant land in the six locations has huge potential to be monetised. The facilities to come up will provide direct and indirect employment besides encouraging redevelopment of neighbourhoods and fostering economic growth, he reasoned.
Once the terminals are developed, the areas can be prevented from encroachments by roadside traders and generate revenue. The truck terminals will streamline vehicle parking and their movement on the highways. Meanwhile, the State Transport Authority (STA) has invited an expression of interest (EoI) for the construction, development and maintenance of truck terminals on PPP. Bids have been sought from various local, national and international developers, who are well conversant with the development of integrated truck terminals, by December 2.
The broad scope of work of the bidder would include financing the total project, construction of a terminal along with a parking facility, operation and maintenance of developed facilities during the concession period and development of commercial facilities. Of the 5,081 fatalities due to road accidents reported in 2021, around 25 per cent of deaths were due to the collision of vehicles with illegally parked trucks on the highways.